%feed  
http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedaily.com%2Freleases%2F2016%2F09%2F160902082541.htm&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Atlantic cod's sex gene has been revealed  
Newly developed methods have made it possible to determine the Atlantic cod's gender genetically. This could increase profits on cod in aquaculture, say researchers.  
gaia  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencedaily.com%2Freleases%2F2016%2F09%2F160901125652.htm&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Organized poaching is decimating Madagascar's sea turtles  
The illegal hunting of Madagascar's sea turtles is reaching a crisis level as a result of organized trafficking networks says a team of conservationists. The team asserts that the recent spike in the exploitation of marine turtles is being driven by increasing demand for marine turtle meat and oil both on local markets and in Southeast Asia and the participation of local villagers in the illegal hunting for monetary gain.  
gaia  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fgo.theregister.com%2Ffeed%2Fwww.theregister.co.uk%2F2016%2F09%2F03%2Fjupiter_north_pole_hexagon%2F&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Heavenly hexagon found at Jupiter's North Pole!  

Juno's joy of six in spaaaaace: half a dozen megabytes of data took 6² hours to download

Jupiter has a colossal hexagon at its North Pole.…

 
science  

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http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/jpl/pia21032/jupiter-down-under  
Jupiter Down Under  
This image from NASA's Juno spacecraft provides a never-before-seen perspective on Jupiter's south pole.  
astronomy  

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/architecture-design-blog/2016/sep/02/carbuncle-cup-2016-gong-for-uks-ugliest-building-up-for-grabs  
Carbuncle Cup 2016: gong for UK's ugliest building up for grabs  

From psychedelic chequerboards to sci-fi hulks, which of these magnificent monstrosities is deserving of architecture's most ignoble accolade?

It's the one award no architect wants to win, the trophy that won't be taking pride of place on the mantelpiece. While buildings are daily showered with prizes for the best use of bricks and wood, for finely poured concrete and the most elegant windows, the accolade that haunts them all is rearing its ugly head once again.

Holding up a dark mirror to the Stirling prize, the Carbuncle Cup singles out the worst offenders of the year, the abominations that blight our skylines and bully our streets, the mean-minded developer tat that clutters cities up and down the country. From botched renovations to bloated towers, it awards the most heinous “crimes against architecture” or crimes against the public.

Related: Carbuncle Cup: Walkie Talkie wins prize for worst building of the year

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design  

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/02/oscar-wilde-behind-bars-and-a-revolution-at-the-va-the-week-in-art  
Oscar Wilde behind bars and a revolution at the V&A the week in art  

Steve McQueen and Colm Tóibín remember Wilde, Marcus Harvey's grotesque images of British history are perfect for a Brexit summer's end and shots from the seaside all in your weekly art dispatch

Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison
Oscar Wilde's incarceration in Reading jail after falling foul of the Marquess of Queensberry is remembered by artists and writers including Steve McQueen and Colm Tóibín at the prison itself.
• HM Prison Reading, until 30 October.

Continue reading...  
design  

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/02/francis-crick-institute-review-it-looks-better-from-1000-feet  
Francis Crick Institute: cathedral of science 'looks better from 1,000 ft'  

Expectations for groundbreaking discoveries at landmark £700m biomedical research facility are high, but does its architecture live up to the same hype?

Appearing on London's King's Cross horizon like an upturned beetle, with its row of metal chimneys protruding like little pairs of legs from the fattened silver belly of its roof, the Francis Crick Institute cuts a strange silhouette. As its dichroic-coated glass fins shimmer with rainbow iridescence in the late summer sun, it could be one of the specimens under the electron microscope buried in the bowels of this new £700m biomedical research facility.

“It looks better from 1,000 ft,” says Sir Paul Nurse, the jovial Nobel prize-winning director of the country's new flagship research centre, the largest such hub in Europe, now charged with furthering our understanding of the fundamental biology of human health. “You can't really see it properly from the ground.”

Related: Carbuncle Cup 2016: gong for UK's ugliest building up for grabs

In other hands, this building could have had the thrill of the Pompidou Centre in Paris

Related: Francis Crick portrait unveiled to honour breakthrough DNA work

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design  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/ik-joong-kang-floating-dreams-london-thames-korean-war-09-02-2016/  
ik-joong kang lights up floating dreams on london's river thames  

comprising a façade of 500 drawings, the giant geometric lantern serves as a symbol of hope for the reunification of north and south korea.

The post ik-joong kang lights up floating dreams on london's river thames appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/02/oscar-wilde-behind-bars-and-a-revolution-at-the-va-the-week-in-art  
Oscar Wilde behind bars and a revolution at the V&A the week in art  

Steve McQueen and Colm Tóibín remember Wilde, Marcus Harvey's grotesque images of British history are perfect for a Brexit summer's end and shots from the seaside all in your weekly art dispatch

Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison
Oscar Wilde's incarceration in Reading jail after falling foul of the Marquess of Queensberry is remembered by artists and writers including Steve McQueen and Colm Tóibín at the prison itself.
• HM Prison Reading, until 30 October.

Continue reading...  
art  

%feed  
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/02/oscar-wilde-behind-bars-and-a-revolution-at-the-va-the-week-in-art  
Oscar Wilde behind bars and a revolution at the V&A the week in art  

Steve McQueen and Colm Tóibín remember Wilde, Marcus Harvey's grotesque images of British history are perfect for a Brexit summer's end and shots from the seaside all in your weekly art dispatch

Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison
Oscar Wilde's incarceration in Reading jail after falling foul of the Marquess of Queensberry is remembered by artists and writers including Steve McQueen and Colm Tóibín at the prison itself.
• HM Prison Reading, until 30 October.

Continue reading...  
art  

%feed  
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/sep/02/great-fire-of-london-website-350th-anniversary-museum-of-london  
Great Fire of London website to mark 350th anniversary  

Museum of London site showcases exhibits including melted window glass from site of blaze in bakery on Pudding Lane

The Museum of London has launched a Great Fire of London website to mark the 350th anniversary of the blaze, tracking the course of the fire that broke out in the small hours of 2 September 1666, and over four days tore the heart out of the medieval city.

Related: Lost in the Great Fire: which London buildings disappeared in the 1666 blaze?

Related: The Great Fire of London killed a lot more than a dozen people | Letters

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art  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/kollision-rabbit-hole-aarhus-festival-denmark-09-02-2016/  
kollision presents rabbit hole immersive installation at aarhus festival  

the 25-meter high cylindrical space of light, movement and sounds leads the user through a journey of madness.

The post kollision presents rabbit hole immersive installation at aarhus festival appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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http://www.designboom.com/art/azuma-makoto-floral-sculptures-drop-time-exhibition-flowers-tokyo-09-02-2016/  
azuma makoto displays the death and life of floral sculptures in tokyo  

the exhibition displays the evolving conditions, qualities, and characteristics of flowers as they shift through the stages of decay.

The post azuma makoto displays the death and life of floral sculptures in tokyo appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.

 
art  

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https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/01/bjork-digital-review-somerset-house-vulnicura-virtual-reality-vr  
Björk Digital review to virtual reality and beyond  

Somerset House, London
The musician's otherworldly VR album-exhibition shows that technology can't quite keep up with her galactic-scale artistic ambition

Well, this is definitely the most fun you can have inside a gigantic pulsating mouth this month. Predictably, Björk Digital is a peculiar affair. It is essentially the first chance to watch or perhaps “experience” or “inhabit” would be more appropriate four of the new virtual reality videos for Vulnicura tracks that are to be released “on all major VR platforms” this winter, plus a couple of cinema rooms and some odd musical instruments and iPad apps you can tootle on. Ticketholders are led through in timed groups so that VR stations and this immersive exhibition can be experienced in sync. It's neither art exhibition nor film presentation nor tech demonstration, but a hodge-podge of all of the above.

Related: Björk: ‘I build bridges between tech and the human things we do'

Related: Björk: 'It's no coincidence that the porn industry has embraced virtual reality'

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art  

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http://borrachas.tumblr.com/post/149848301164  
371  

371

 
gifs  

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http://borrachas.tumblr.com/post/149803000514  
370  

370

 
gifs  

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http://insider.si.edu/2016/09/millions-years-ants-still-trying-get-crop-domestication-right/  
Some ants still trying to get crop domestication right  

Skinny lines of ants snake through the rainforest carrying leaves and flowers above their heads—fertilizer for industrial-scale, underground fungus farms. Soon after the dinosaur extinctions 60 million years ago, the ancestors of leaf-cutter ants swapped a hunter-gatherer lifestyle for this bucolic existence on small-scale subsistence farms. A new study at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama revealed that living relatives of the earliest fungus-farming ants still have not domesticated their crop, a challenge also faced by early human farmers.

Modern leaf-cutter ants cannot live without their fungus, and the fungus cannot live without the ants—in fact, young queens carry a bit from the nests where they were born when they fly out to establish a new nest. The fungus, in turn, does not waste energy-producing spores to reproduce itself.

“For this sort of tight mutual relationship to develop, the interests of the ants and the fungi have to be completely aligned, like when business partners agree on all the terms in a contract,” said Bill Wcislo, deputy director at the STRI and co-author of the new publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We found that the selfish interests of more primitive ancestors of leaf-cutting ants are still not in line with the selfish interests of their fungal partner, so complete domestication hasn't really happened yet.”

Just as human farmers harvest their vegetables before they go to seed, ants want their fungus to minimize the amount of energy it puts into creating inedible mushrooms full of spores. It is best for the ants if the fungus grows more of the fungal hyphae that fill up the chambers in their underground gardens and serve as food for the ants and their larvae.

In a study of Mycocepurus smithii, an ancestor of the leaf cutters that has not yet domesticated its fungal crop, at the Smithsonian research center in Gamboa, Panama, Jonathan Shik, a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow in Jacobus Boomsma's lab at the University of Copenhagen, and collaborators discovered that the ants adjust the protein and carbohydrate concentration of the mulch they provide to minimize the amount of mushrooms that their non-domesticated fungal cultivars produce. When they provide mulches rich in carbohydrates, the fungus can produce both hyphae and mushrooms, but carefully provisioned doses of protein can prevent the fungi from making mushrooms. However, this strategy of keeping their fungus in line requires that the total output of their fungus gardens remain low.

“The parallels between ant fungus farming and human agriculture are uncanny,” Shik said. “Human agriculture evolved in the past 10,000 years.”

“It took 30 million years of natural selection until the higher attine ants fully domesticated one of their fungal symbiont lineages. We think that finally resolved this farmer-crop conflict and removed constraints on increased productivity, producing the modern leaf-cutter ants 15 million years ago,” Boomsma said. “In contrast, it took human farmers relatively little time to domesticate fruit crops and to select for seedless grapes, bananas and oranges.”

The post Some ants still trying to get crop domestication right appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

 
culture  

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http://insider.si.edu/2016/09/human-health-risks-of-eating-sea-turtle-eggs-could-benefit-species/  
Human health risks of eating sea turtle eggs could benefit species  

According to a new study, eating sea turtle eggs increases the health risk of heavy metal exposure in local communities in Panama and may provide a new strategy for conservation.

Researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama and McGill University collected eggs from green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and olive ridley turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) from the Pacific coast of Panama, and measured the heavy metal amounts—known to cause adverse health effects in humans—the eggs contained. The study was published in June in the Journal of Environmental Science and Health.

They found the eggs contained elevated levels of a number of heavy metals, particularly cadmium at a level that could be toxic to young children who eat 20 eggs per week or more. That consumption figure may sound high, but during egg laying season, when the turtle eggs are an easy source of protein, it is consistent with the eating habits in isolated coastal communities.

Throughout the year, thousands of female sea turtles crawl onto beaches on both sides of the Isthmus of Panama (Pacific and Caribbean) and lay eggs in the sand. The eggs are easily dug up, collected, eaten or sold by locals. Because one nest can contain as many as 100 eggs, families living near laying beaches with no refrigeration can easily exceed the safe weekly consumption of a few eggs per individual per day.

“When you are in these local communities along the coast, when it's the season, the people eat them all the time,” says Hector M. Guzman, a marine biologist at the Tropical Research Institute. “You can buy a dozen right on the street everywhere in the countryside, and there are plenty in the market. Kids and pregnant women eat them, and people put them in their drinks at bars.”

The most damaging effects of eating so many eggs may be cumulative, Guzman explains. “It might not be that something is going to happen in one or two weeks, or in one season,” he adds. “But if you do that every year of your life, you are bio-accumulating these metals into your tissues.”

Heavy metals tend to stay in a person's body, accumulating in fatty tissues over a lifetime. Heavy metals consumed in turtle eggs are added to the normal daily intake of these toxins from fish, seafood and other environmental sources. Sea turtle eggs may contribute a significant amount of these toxins. In the case of cadmium, average consumption rates can account for more than 30 percent of safe intake levels set by the World Health Organization, especially in young people from the age of five through young adulthood

Long-term exposure to cadmium can cause kidney and skeletal problems in humans. The researchers also found elevated levels of mercury, arsenic, manganese, iron, copper and zinc in the turtle eggs. The effects of these heavy metals on humans range from neurological damage, reproductive health problems and various forms of cancer.

The effect of these toxins on the turtles remains unknown, although it is presumed to be just as detrimental. The presence of toxins in the marine environment has grown dramatically in recent decades from mining runoff, industrial emissions and batteries and paints. Sea turtles the world over have been found to have elevated levels of heavy metals in their bodies, which could be having a negative impact on their health and reproductive rates.

A more immediate threat to the turtles, however, comes from direct human activity such as hunting, entanglement in fishing gear and the raiding of sea turtle nests.

Although collecting turtle eggs is mostly prohibited throughout the tropical eastern Pacific, including Panama, poaching is rampant and contributes to the dwindling numbers of many sea turtle species. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, olive ridley turtles are listed as vulnerable and green turtles as endangered.

Conservation efforts have increased awareness of the problem, but among rural coastal communities, these campaigns have made limited progress. “Back in the '70s, when I was a student in Costa Rica, the practice of conservation campaigns was to produce coloring books to teach the kids to conserve, or to teach about beautiful turtles in danger,” Guzman says. “Now, four decades later and after a huge international effort, honestly, I don't think we have succeeded in protecting the turtles.”

He hopes this study will open a dialogue about public health that might be more effective at conserving sea turtles by reducing demand for their eggs. “We need more data of course; this is just preliminary while we continue working in the Caribbean, but it is suggesting that we should be careful about eating the eggs,” he says. “I am a scientist, not a conservationist, but to me, it says talking about public health might be an ideal approach to the conservation of sea turtles.”

The post Human health risks of eating sea turtle eggs could benefit species appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

 
culture  

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http://movieposteroftheday.tumblr.com/post/149836338927  
Italian 2-fogli for EL TOPO (Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mexico,...  

Italian 2-fogli for EL TOPO (Alejandro Jodorowsky, Mexico, 1970)

Designer: uncredited

Poster source: Heritage Auctions

See the best of the last three months of Movie Poster of the Day, headed up by a French poster for El Topo, at MUBI.

 
culture  

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http://movieposteroftheday.tumblr.com/post/149806921902  
2016 US theatrical re-release poster for DEKALOG (Krzysztof...  

2016 US theatrical re-release poster for DEKALOG (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Poland, 1988) 

Designer: Anthony Gerace

Poster source: Janus Films

See Anthony Gerace's beautiful grid-based artwork, which puts his stunning Dekalog design in context.

 
culture  

%feed  
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2016/09/03/apple-is-using-wizardry-to-tweet-without-tweeting/  
Apple is using wizardry to tweet without tweeting  

Apple is pulling a Samsung by using ‘dark' tweets to remind Twitter users about its upcoming event. Much like Samsung did back in February, Apple is responding to messages through paid Twitter advertising (or this trick) — a move that keeps the tweet from appearing on its own timeline. If you retweet this tweet — which doesn't exist, apparently… September 7 at 10 a.m. PTWatch the event on https://t.co/yLa2e4Xr2R.RT for a reminder on event day. #AppleEvent pic.twitter.com/e9MHNkLeoi — Apple (@Apple) September 2, 2016 You'll get a reminder ‘shortly before' the September 7 event. You know, in case you forgot that…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/security/2016/09/03/hackers-found-an-exploit-to-bring-banned-twitter-accounts-back-from-the-grave/  
Hackers found an exploit to bring banned Twitter accounts back from the grave  

When Twitter bans an account, nobody expects it to come back from the dead. Yet, that's exactly what happened recently when a group called ‘Spain Squad' managed to resurrect several accounts Twitter had recently taken offline. Accounts like @DarkNet, @1337, @Hell and @LizardSquad are a handful of the accounts Spain Squad took control over. Each of these accounts could fetch thousands of dollars from users looking for memorable, or notorious, account names. Of course, Twitter could just as easily re-suspend them, as it seems to have done with the aforementioned names. Spain Squad claims it has more tricks up its…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/insider/2016/09/03/allstate-insurance-embraces-drone-technology-to-process-claims-faster/  
Allstate Insurance embraces drone technology to process claims faster  

Allstate — an American insurance company — used drones to inspect over 20 home roofs in an area outside of San Antonio Tuesday. Each of the homes had varying levels of damage caused by (in some cases) softball-sized hail that left holes in roofs “you could see through” Glenn Shapiro, Allstate's executive vice president of claims told Fortune. The storms were months ago — April through June of this year — but the sheer number of claims and the lack of available contractors to fix them means some are still waiting with holes in their roofs while Allstate inspects the home.…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/gaming/2016/09/02/report-nintendo-is-bringing-the-cartridge-back-for-its-new-console/  
Report: Nintendo is bringing the cartridge back for its new console  

Nintendo plans to release its new system with a format many of us thought was dead — the cartridge. Ultimately abandoned after the Nintendo 64, the cartridge was long feared dead until chip-based cartridges started garnering new attention. Flash memory can pack a ton of data onto a single cartridge, and with fierce competition among semiconductor makers like Samsung and Toshiba, the price is hoped to reach parity with the disc at some point in the near future. When this happens, the cartridge may become relevant again — or we could be playing on consoles that require us to download new titles…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology  

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http://thenextweb.com/space/2016/09/02/video-emerges-of-spacexs-falcon-9-going-up-in-smoke-on-the-launch-pad/  
Video emerges of SpaceX's Falcon 9 going up in smoke on the launch pad  

After SpaceX's Falcon 9 exploded on the launch pad this morning, we now have video detailing its final moments. The video, shot by US Launch Report — a non-profit that brings military veterans to witness space launches — shows the rocket being fueled before being engulfed in flames. The rocket, and its $95 million-plus payload — a Facebook-owned Amos-6 satellite — were both destroyed. The satellite was meant to provide free internet access to millions in Sub-Saharan Africa as part of CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Internet.org initiative. Zuckerberg provided this statement via Facebook: I'm deeply disappointed to hear that SpaceX's launch failure…

This story continues at The Next Web  
technology